Yes, I am in that position, several times over, as a academic and in my own right. You will increasing find employers unwilling or prohibited from paying without deduction of tax and NI because of HMRC rules - which don't seem to apply to everyone, as we so often read! Be careful also about taxation. Challenge everything since you will be in 2 different tax systems each managed by HRMC using computer systems that don't talk to each other. I have no end of problems and always the trite answer to why have they made more problems that cost me so much money is "it is YOUR responsibility to check your tax codes and any bills". No irony, no apology - we make the errors and its your responsibility to spot them and tell us, prove to us, that we have got it wrong. Get an accountant to help you and to check on the decisions made by HMRC, then weep at the HMRC rule that forbids the accountants fees being put against tax! The moderators don't like me using the word idiot, even if it might be the most appropriate descriptor. In this case, might I be allowed to refer to HMRC as a bunch of .....

im currently employed part time and self employed part time, i use my tax allowance for the employed job and sort the self employed tax out when i do my tax returns in april. just make sure you leave enough to one side to pay the tax. i had to tell the hmrc that the employed job was my main job so they put the tax allowance to that one. depending how big your going to go self employed it might be worth going limited, you can get some good allowances if you do it right, but its not for everyone, a good accountant is recommended, i do my own but started in accountancy after school. dont forget to tell hmrc when you go self employed as they give you a time limit to tell them or they fine you.

I currently receive an occupational pension; paid by two organisations via PAYE & paid directly by clients as a consultant + work that also goes via PAYE (not an option to be paid any other way!) I received financial advice from my bank's Small Business Adviser; opened up a separate bank account to keep everything in one place & received two years free banking & ongoing support into the bargain. My consultancy work is covered by PI & PL insurance at £1million each, & before I started met up with an experienced consultant (who often contributes on this Forum) to gain an insight into how a consultancy works in real life - a very worthwhile cup of coffee! In addition, I had to invest in IT; business cards, headed paper; a dedicated mobile, etc., so there are "start up" costs to consider. Six months on, did I make the right decision...jury is still out, but almost certainly, yes. Good luck!

My husband is both employed and self employed. He pays PAYE and NI on his regular job and then he invoices for his consultancy work and completes a self-employed tax return for this. To pay off tax due from his consultancy work, HMRC adjust his personal allowance on his PAYE to claim this back. He doesn't earn massive amounts as a self employed person and I do his tax returns which are relatively straightforward once you have the P60 from the employment and the invoices from the self employed and then any tax deductibles, for example, rent for my husband's office in our home and the business share of heating, lighting, etc, these are not subject to tax and get removed before tax is calculated. You do need to register as a self employed person with the tax office though before you start. There are loads of guides on direct.gov.uk on how to do these things and when we set my husband up a couple of years ago it was relatively easy. Easy in terms of the government and tax office shenanigans, not actually easy easy, if you know what I mean :(